Episodes
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay have a conversation with Dr. William Ruger – the President of the American Institute for Economic Research and the Chair of the Board of Directors of the John Quincy Adams Society. Dr. Ruger is a long-time advocate for realist foreign policy, a decorated veteran of the war in Afghanistan and an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves, in addition to being President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in 2020. Dr. Ruger was previously the Vice President of Research and Policy at the Charles Koch Institute, where he played a big role in building the realism and restraint movement. Our conversation today ranges from alliances to grand strategy principles to the war in Afghanistan and military Keynesianism. Dr. Ruger's recent article on the national debt
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This week, we have a live recording of one of our JQAS summer conference sessions - "Redteaming Restraint with Dr. Eugene Gholz and Dr. Michael Desch". In it, John Allen Gay and our conference participants asked some of the most challenging questions they had about restraint in U.S. foreign policy and Dr. Gholz and Dr. Desch answered them.
Note: This is our first live recording, so there are a few audio issues. Additionally, to preserve the anonymity of conference participants and their questions, we're dubbing their question with Patrick's voice but trying to ask the question verbatim.
Dr. Michael C. Desch is Packey J. Dee Professor of International Relations at the University of Notre Dame and Brian and Jeannelle Brady Family Director of the Notre Dame International Security Center.
Dr. Eugene Gholz is an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He co-wrote a well-known International Security article that coined the term “restraint” as a proposed grand strategy for the United States. From 2010-2012, he served in the Pentagon as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy.
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Missing episodes?
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and A.J. Manuzzi spoke about Haiti with Jake Johnston, Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC. Jake is the lead author of CEPR's Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction blog and the author of the book Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism and the Battle to Control Haiti. We spoke about the humanitarian military intervention there, the state of the island and international efforts to promote democracy in Haiti.
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Mike DiMino and Dan Caldwell of Defense Priorities. Mike is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism officer who’s worked on everything from operational assignments overseas to the EUCOM to the President’s Daily Brief. Dan is a public policy advisor at Defense Priorities and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, having deployed to Iraq and conducted operations in Al Anbar and Ninawa provinces. Today, we’re going to be talking about the state of democracy in Ukraine, manpower issues and the Kherson front, demographics in Ukraine, escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and the pathway out of American primacy in the Middle East.
Check out Mike's recent explainer on Ukraine
Check out the letter John and Dan signed
Check out the EU studies on Ukraine's demographics
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Dr. Nathaniel Powell, West Africa Analyst at Oxford Analytica. Dr. Powell is the author of France’s Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University’s Centre for War and Diplomacy. Our conversation today ranges from France's history in the region to intelligence failures in Niger to the reality about Russian involvement in the region.
Recent WOTR Essay on Washington and Niger
Recent WOTR Essay on France and Mali
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and AJ Manuzzi spoke with Ali Wyne, Senior Research and Advocacy Advisor on U.S.-China at International Crisis Group. Ali analyzes the development of U.S. policy toward China and formulates ICG recommendations for managing crises and preventing conflicts between Washington and Beijing. He has previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment, State Department, RAND Corporation and Eurasia Group. He’s the author of several books, including a biography of Lee Kuan Yew and most recently America’s Great Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition.Check out America's Great Power Opportunity
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Dr. James Acton, co-director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Nuclear Policy Program.
Dr. Acton has a PhD in theoretical physics from Cambridge and he’s testified to the House Armed Services Committee, House Appropriations Committee and US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He’s an expert in hypersonic weapons and he’s currently writing a book on the nuclear escalation risks of advanced non-nuclear weapons.
Our conversation touches on the nuclear escalation risks of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the state of U.S. nuclear targeting policy, the role of the "three body problem" on nuclear proliferation in a multipolar world and proliferation risks with American allies. Dr. Acton's essay on counterforce
Apply to Progressive Talent Pipeline
Apply to KAP
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Julia Gledhill, a Research Associate at the Stimson Center and a former JQAS chapter leader who's a rising star in DC tracking Pentagon spending, military contracting and weapons acquisition. She's appeared on NPR, More Perfect Union and she's now a co-host on the newest version of the Un-Diplomatic Podcast. She joins us to talk about Pentagon budget flexibility reform, behavior from U.S. defense contractors, the relationship between the defense budget and strategy and more!
Further Reading
Julia's reporting on defense contractor finances
Julia's reporting on Congress and defense acquisition
Julia's essay on PPBE Reform
Julia's essay on the Pentagon audit
Apply to the Progressive Talent Pipeline
Apply to the Koch Associate Program
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Dr. Brandon Valeriano, a professor at Seton Hall University. Dr. Valeriano is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Marine Corps University as a Senior Advisor to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 and he’s additionally written a number of books on the subject, including CyberStrategy: The Evolving Character of Power and Coersion in 2018. Today, we talk about the state of modern cybersecurity, hackers as proxy-forces, K-pop's role in Asian geo-politics and what a Netflix series can teach us about the state of Chinese soft power.
Article on Boy Bands
Article on The 3 Body Problem
Article on De-Escalation and Cyber
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Dr. Joshua Shifrinson, a professor at the University of Maryland, non-resident senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Rising Titans, Falling Giants. This was a great conversation about the rise and fall of great powers, American involvement in the war in Ukraine and the future of U.S. European politics.
Dr. Shifrinson's essay on Ukraine with Ashford & Wertheim
Dr. Shifrinson's essay on multipolarity in Foreign Affairs
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay had a conversation with Christopher McCallion, a Fellow at Defense Priorities. We talk all about grand strategy, from hegemonic stability theory to reckless driving from allies and more.
Read Shield of the Republic
Read The Balance of Power
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On this episode of Security Dilemma, we have our first return guest on the show - Dr. Stephen Wertheim. Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay joined him at his offices at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss Ukraine, NATO, restraint, "retrenchment" and the foreign policy implications of the 2024 elections. After the release of this episode, Dr. Wertheim released an essay in Foreign Policy on Ukraine, so you can check that out as well! Tune in for a great episode!
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay spoke with Reid Smith, Vice President of Foreign Policy at StandTogether. Reid is an important advocate for realism and restraint in U.S. foreign policy, coordinating support for many of the researchers, and academics featured on this show. This episode dives into the premises of restraint, the recent congressional fight over aid to Ukraine, the concept of a "new Cold War" and more.
Reid's article on Ukraine aid
Reid's article on "anti-strategy"
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and Michael D. Culp interview Brandan P. Buck, a historian of right-wing opposition to U.S. foreign policy and the national security state through the Cold War.
We talk about the origins of the "Old Right" through the first World War, the perspective they offered in the rise of American internationalism in the second World War, their decline around the Vietnam War and the state of right-wing opposition to U.S. imperialism through the Global War on Terror.
Brandan P. Buck is a Ph.D. candidate at George Mason University. He’s previous served with the U.S. Army and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay interviewed Dr. Osamah Khalil, the author of the new book A World Of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden. This book covers the history of how endless wars have affected American domestic policy, from Vietnam and COINTELPRO to the Global War on Terror.
Dr. Khalil is a history professor at Syracuse University and the author of America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State, which was named the Best Book of 2017 by Foreign Affairs magazine. This is his second book and it came out recently on April 16th.
This episode is also announcing a new JQAS reading group - if you're eligible and sign up in time, we'll send you a copy of A World Of Enemies. If you're in DC, join us for a group conversation over dinner. If not, hop on a zoom call to discuss the book.
Sign up for the JQAS reading group.
Purchase A World Of Enemies.
Purchase America's Dream Palace.
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This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox talk with John Byrnes and Tyler Koteskey of Concerned Veterans for America. This episode covers how veteran communities have been affected by the Global War on Terror, the use and misuse of reservists and national guardsmen, naval procurement and more.
John Byrnes is strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America. He joined the marine corps in 1991 out of high school and served four years, deployed to Somalia in 1993. He joined the New York National Guard, serving at ground zero after the September 11th terrorist attacks and was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring from the National Guard in 2018.
Tyler Koteskey is policy director for Concerned Veterans for America, a Fall 2020 Marcellus Policy Fellow with JQAS and now writes about key national security issues including Ukraine Aid, naval policy and more.
Tyler's article on Navy VLS SystemsTyler's article on Ukraine Aid
(This is the first time we've had two guests and the first time we've recorded in the same room with them, so apologies for any audio inconsistencies.)
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This afternoon, John Allen Gay sat down to give his thoughts on recent developments in the Middle East and the threat of Iranian retaliation.
John Allen Gay is the Executive Director of The John Quincy Adams Society, Security Dilemma host and co-author of War With Iran: Political, Military and Economic Consequences, published in 2013.
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This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox speak with Dr. Gregory Brew about the changing paradigms of energy markets, from "the great de-risking" to the green energy transition, and what all this means for U.S. national security. Dr. Brew is an analyst at the Eurasia Group and a researcher on the formation of the global oil economy and contemporary energy transition.
Dr. Brew's new piece in War on the Rocks.Apply to the JQAS Summer Conference by May 7th!
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This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox spoke with Dr. Paul R. Pillar, a 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency who served as the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005.
A Vietnam veteran, he rose to serve as the Executive Assistant to CIA Director William Webster, the Deputy Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now is a valuable critic of U.S. foreign policy as a non-resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.
Today, we’re going to talk about Israeli airstrikes on Iranian diplomatic facilities in Damascus, tensions with Hezbollah, the Biden Administration's approach to the offensive in Gaza, the prospect of Israeli elections and more.
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This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and A.J. Manuzzi interview Dr. Jon Hoffman, a policy analyst in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute. He holds a PhD in political science from George Mason, part of the Middle East Policy Council’s “40 under 40” and he writes about Middle East geopolitics in publications like Foreign Policy, The Washington Post and The National Interest.
In this episode, we cover the state of the war in Gaza, the politics of surrounding countries like Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia and the future of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Dr. Hoffman's most recent essay in Foreign Policy
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